McGees Property secures its future with Microsoft 365 after ransomware attack

McGees Property just had their 40th anniversary, when the business came to a halt.  

Craig Feely, a partner at McGees Property, one of Australia’s largest privately owned commercial real estate agencies, describes the ransomware attack on that day in 2022. He said, “We were unsure whether we'd have a business and whether we'd get through it.” Staff were locked out of their files for more than 4 weeks, working from personal emails and still trying to keep as many deals going as possible. 

It was very clear McGees Property needed to move forward rapidly following the ransomware attack. Using Microsoft 365, they moved from on-premise servers and services, including email exchange, file storage and productivity apps, to the cloud. This transformation has future-proofed their business. Danielle Brautigan, General and Finance Manager describes “We just don't want to be secure. We want to go to the next level.”

Craig noted, "We were probably about 10-15 years behind the times. We hadn't really placed any emphasis on our IT environment at all."  

“Like most companies that have been hit by ransomware”, Craig admitted, “we thought they're not going to come after a company like us.”  

McGees Property recovered from that ransomware attack, and the move from on-premise to the cloud has helped them improve collaboration, strengthen data security, and run their business more efficiently.  

McGees Property realized very quickly how important their data was to run their business, and how important it was to have a local partner. Craig explained that this helped McGees Property completely restructure their SharePoint, by putting everything from on-premise into the cloud. Ongoing training, which was easily accessible, supported each team member as they became more proficient with the new way of working.  

Using OneDrive, there are now no syncing issues or document duplications, and business divisions are run smoother and more efficiently. The team can now collaborate on documents and share information around the office easily. From on-premise servers with limited cybersecurity on the PC desktops, the cloud SharePoint restructure now has data protection and team-based security permissions for each of their divisions that protects their business moving forward. Craig shares, "Security wise, I sleep a lot better at night now.” 

Danielle Brautigan also mentioned that "searching for files through SharePoint is now really quick and easy. We're not searching for millions of files across the whole firm; we're searching for files within the area that we work." It also supports advanced cybersecurity apps, including Microsoft Defender, Intune, and Purview, that address McGees Property security concerns when remote employees are accessing files and communicating with their team. Danielle summarizes “As part of our Microsoft E5 license which provides security features such as data loss prevention (DLP) and information labeling, we get just about every app under the sun and the more we delve into it, the more we can use it.” 

Microsoft 365, more than Office apps

By migrating to Microsoft 365, McGees Property has elevated their productivity beyond the standard Office apps and leveraged new features like Microsoft 365 Copilot, all while not compromising their security. Microsoft Teams, for example, has become another way to share and collaborate on documents. 

Craig also notes that having Copilot provides a competitive edge with so many work tasks. Before Copilot, Craig used to manually summarize Teams meetings, emails, team documents, agreements and valuations. These previous repetitive and time-consuming tasks took away from other productive work that needs to be done. “It's also great for searching our SharePoint structure in ways that the normal search functions won't work." 

As Danielle affirms, “But it's not the manpower from me, it's the manpower from Copilot.”  

For Danielle as a Finance Manager, "Copilot is just a game changer. It really is. What it's done for me in terms of financial analysis is just pivotal.” With minimal effort, Danielle can now create a financial summary comparing one year to the next and present it at a board meeting. Craig shares, “Now we're working on future-proofing our business and continuing to grow it." 

Microsoft 365 is more than just an upgrade—it’s a transformation in how McGees Property works smarter and more efficiently.